Anecdotally I just find it ridiculous that they can't charge me whatever I'm going to owe at the time of the visit. I'm fine paying it then and there, but when

Anecdotally I just find it ridiculous that they can't charge me whatever I'm going to owe at the time of the visit. I'm fine paying it then and there, but when you send me a dead tree 3 months later and want me to either send a check or write down my credit card number and send that back forget it - I'll pay you when I see you again. Seems like a much better solution would be for the insurance to just pay it and then charge me the rest. At least that way I only have one entity to deal with and they probably support online payments. And they're in a much better position to exert leverage to get me to pay - if I'm too far behind on paying them they can suspend my insurance whereas a care provider that I'm unlikely to see for months or years really has no recourse other than sending me more dead trees begging for payment.